Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the organization.
Intermedia is a boutique software development company, funded and handled by a group of proactive professionals in the tech industry passionate about the creation of edgy and innovative products. Our company provides solutions to clients all over the world, mainly for the US market. Our core is Mobile Apps development (native but also a hybrid) and of course, everything that’s needed to provide a complete solution such as UX/UI, backend development, back-office development, and maintenance. Another strong area within our company is the Artificial Intelligence Department, where we develop different solutions such as KYC software, image recognition, and recommendations systems, among others.
My role as CEO of Intermedia is to lead the strategic planning of the company. Intermedia is constantly growing and evolving so we have to plan everything. I also have a close relationship with the People and Wellness area as I love working with people and helping teams to achieve success.
What is the story behind starting this company?
Intermedia was born in April 2012, while I and Maximiliano Cassola were studying systems engineering at the University of “Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires”, located in Tandil, Argentina. Over the next four years, the company started developing mobile applications for hybrid platforms and iOS systems, for a variety of clients. So, as founders of Intermedia, we can say that we know each other quite well, as the relationship started at the beginning of our career in 2007. This point is very important, for us, being aligned with your partners is one of the keys to success.
In 2016 Guillermo Pomeranz and Brenda Mana Pastrian became partners at Intermedia, the latter left the company months later, and moved to the US. From that moment on, Guillermo, currently commercial director, took direct control of the finances and administration department. In 2017 the company flourished and was hired to develop different projects throughout the Americas. Over the next two years the main KPIs doubled, and our clients started to acknowledge the high quality of the services provided. Finally, in 2020 we relocated to a broader and more comfortable space to be able to meet the needs and standards of our staff and clients. We continued to grow rapidly, and in 2021 Intermedia obtained the ISO 9001:2015 certification which confirms our continuous improvement and consolidates a strong and dynamic business structure that helps us to face the challenges posed by every new project and the cultural diversity of the latitudes we work with.
What are your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
Every year a lot of new websites announce the launching of new digital agencies or related companies. The trick here is that a lot of them are only a landing page with people that hire freelancers all over the world to solve clients’ needs. The issue is that with this approach it is impossible to assure quality because the freelancers are changing periodically. That’s one of the reasons why our company’s business model is an in-house team. We care about people and about our clients, so we have to be sure we have the right person for the right project.
Thus, we can provide our clients the warranty that the team is trusty and able to meet clients’ expectations. Software development is also a social science, if someone is not comfortable enough they won’t be as productive as needed, so we take human relations very seriously.
How does your company differentiate itself from the competition?
As a boutique, we provide very customized service to each of our clients. Not only to startups but also to big corporations, we provide our services in a very personalized way. This is something important at the moment of hiring a new software company, If you can only interact through a ticketing system or formal emails, you can't get the best out of the other part. That's why we provide all the necessary resources for the client to contact us, there is always a team at our side to talk to the client. Another proof of this is that the three partners of the company are available to talk and work with the clients.
As I mentioned before, our business model is also a differentiation from the competition. We know very well the people that work with us, so we can assure quality and reliability. Our team of professionals is improving their skills every day so we can also know every knowledge a team member has, to know the best fit for each project.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
Our clients are diverse, we help companies from different industries. Despite that, we have a strong experience in Telecommunications companies. We are very proud of being able to say that our clients decide to keep on working with us as they receive what they need and more. This is not an opinion, as we can mention for example that some clients have been hiring our services since 2015 (seven years ago and counting).
Please share some of the services that you offer for which clients approach you the most for?
Some of the most important services we offer at intermedia are:
- Staffing is a service for companies that need to increase the number of software developers and professional technicians in their teams.
- Dedicated teams, in charge of a team of experts in the development of digital products that work full time on a specific project to meet the client's needs.
- A turnkey solution is the best alternative when you already know what software you need to develop.
- Maintenance, where we take care of correcting those defects and problems that may emerge after its launch, and update it if necessary.
- Consulting, for those who are looking for the best technological solutions.
- Intermedia participates in an analytical search to offer the most complete solutions for each project. All of these services can be consulted on our website.
What is your customer satisfaction rate according to you? What steps do you take to cater to your customer’s needs and requirements?
We are ISO 9001 certified, which means that we must measure customer satisfaction rate. So it’s not an opinion, the customer satisfaction rate is measured with periodic surveys and calls with our customers. We implement NPS surveys but also other types of questions. This allows us to say that the customer satisfaction rate is above 95%. The requirements elicitation is made through agile methodologies techniques. We make all the meetings that are needed to be sure that we know exactly what clients need and want. This part is vital to be aligned with all the stakeholders.
What kind of support system do you offer to your clients for catering to their queries and issues?
As we follow agile methodologies, the feedback from the client is gathered constantly. The best way of catering to queries and issues is during daily meetings, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, among other agile rituals. We also provide our contact information if something important occurs. We also have a ticketing system in the case of providing a maintenance service.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
We have different payment structures depending on the service required. Generally speaking, we provide dedicated teams to our clients, so we bill them following a Pay per Sprint methodology. In some other cases, we make Turnkey projects, so in that case, we use a Fixed Price approach.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
Our minimum requirement to accept a new project depends on the type of service. In the case of dedicated teams, the minimum is a team of three people for six months. In the case of Turnkey projects at least should take 160 hours.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2021?
The price range will depend on the level of experience and technology required. Whatever the project, you can send us your inquiry and we will contact you as soon as possible.
Where do you see your company in the next 10 years?
Intermedia is evolving every year. In the next 10 years, we see the company as a firm in which clients from all over the world trust their technological needs. At the same time, we want to be a company where people want to work in, because of the warm atmosphere and customized treatment each person receives.
